One of the best things for shingles is to take a warm bath with oatmeal soap. Aveno makes a good soap that helps with rash, try skin, itching, pain, and other symptoms.
Use an Oatmeal bath. Aveeno makes a preapacked oatmeal bath solution that works wonders once added to a tub of warm water. After the bath rub the area gently with Tea tree oil.
Until the dawn of anti-viral medications, people with shingles treated the symptoms and just rode out the condition. Anti-virals help prevent the condition from worsening.